Give It A Doubt

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the
best information

Many, many years ago during a lengthy argument with a friend he told me to
'give it a doubt' - he meant I was wrong.

The herd is convinced the commodities boom is over. Doom and gloom, the sky
is falling, the bears argument sounds convincing - growth has stopped, economies
are slowing. Looking at the TSX.V's performance (most of the world's mineral
exploration firms call the Venture Exchange home) it's as if people are convinced
the need to search for, develop and mine new mineral deposits is over.

According to Bloomberg the U.S. economy may cool to a 1.6 percent pace in
the second quarter, after growing at a 2.5 percent rate in the first three
months of 2013.

U.S. industrial production fell by the most in eight months - a gauge of factories
in the New York area fell to minus 1.4 this month from 3.1 in April.

"The drop in factory output, which accounts for more than 70 percent of
industrial production, was broad-based and in keeping with data earlier this
month that showed factory payrolls failed to expand last month.

Industrial capacity utilization, a measure of how fully the nation's mines,
factories and utilities are deploying their resources, dropped sharply from
a more than 4-1/2 year high." Reuters,Factory, wholesale price data flag
economy's woes

Manufacturing has been hit hard by the $85 billion in across the board spending
cuts - the 'fiscal cliff' that started in March. U.S. GDP growth is predicted
at 1.9 percent for 2013.

There's a record six quarter recession in Europe, GDP growth there is expected
to contract by 0.1 percent, GDP growth for Japan is predicted at 0.8 percent
for 2013.

In the Latin American and Caribbean region 2013 GDP growth is predicted at
3.5 percent, in the East Asian and Pacific region growth is predicted at 7.9
percent. China's GDP growth outlook for 2013 is 8.6 percent while India's outlook
clocks in at 6.1 percent.

With a current population of 4.3 billion, Asia will add about one billion
people to the global population by 2050 - most will live in urban areas.

Under new Chinese leadership China is going to spend a massive 40 trillion
yuan to urbanize the rural outskirts of some 270 cities - China estimates that
400 million additional people will move to its cities in the next 30 years.

By 2025, nearly 2.5 billion Asians will live in cities, accounting for almost
54 percent of the world's urban population.

India and China alone will account for more than 62 percent of Asian urban
population growth and 40 percent of global urban population growth from 2005
to 2025.

It took India nearly 40 years to add 230 million urban residents, but it will
take only half that time to add another 250 million.

Africa's population can be expected to at least double from 1.1 billion to
about 2.3 billion by 2050 - most will live in urban areas.

Africans, on a per capita basis, are richer than Indians and a full dozen
African states have higher gross national income per capita than China.

"The incomes of these new consuming classes are rising even faster
than the number of individuals in the consuming classes. This means that
many products and services are hitting take-off points at which their
consumption rises swiftly and steeply. By 2025 urban consumers are likely
to inject around $20 trillion a year in additional spending into the
world economy. Catering to the burgeoning urban consumer classes will
also require a boom in the construction of buildings and infrastructure.
We estimate that cities will need annual physical capital investment
to more than double from nearly $10 trillion today to more than $20 trillion
by 2025, the lion's share of which will be in the emerging world."

~McKinsey Global Institute, Urban World: Cities and the rise of the consuming
class

Today Africa has 15 percent of the world's population and by 2050 one in every
four people on the planet will be African - by 2027 Africa will have more people
than does China or India.

From the World Bank comes the following:

Cities, large and small, are at the heart of a fast changing global economy
-- they are a cause of, and a response to world economic growth.

The world's cities are growing because people are moving from rural areas
in search of jobs, opportunities to improve their lives and create a better
future for their children.

This is the first time in human history that the majority of the world's population
lives in urban areas:

60% of all people will live in cities by 2030. In 1800, only 2% of people
lived in cities and towns, in 1950 only 30% of the world population was urban
(it has been predicted elsewhere that by 2050, 64.1% and 85.9% of the developing
and developed world respectively will be urbanized).

Almost 180,000 people move into cities each day.

60 million people move into cities each year in developing countries. This
rate of movement will continue for the next 30 years

Another report from the McKinsey Global Institute says the world will need
to spend $57 to $67 trillion between now and 2030 - that's not counting what
it will cost to upgrade networks to get them to where they need to be today
nor do the costs factor in climate
change.

Representing 43 percent of the world's population and 17 percent of trade
the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - have agreed to
create a development bank to provide initial funding for infrastructure projects
worth $4.5 trillion. Other developing countries will eventually be invited
to join the bank, India has offered $50bn of seed capital to get the initiative
started.

What about the present day global infrastructure deficit, what about the deficit
that already exists never mind the trillions of dollars and massive resources
needed for newly minted and future urbanites, the exploding consumer class?

Back to the present

The news isn't good...

Infrastructure is the physical systems - the roads, power transmission lines
and towers, airports, dams, buses, subways, rail links, ports and bridges,
power plants, water delivery systems, hospitals, sewage treatment, etc. - that
are the building blocks, the Legos, that fuel a countries, a cities or a community's
economical, social and financial development.

Cairo, Los Angeles, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, Mumbai, Tokyo, Washington,
Sao Paulo: Each major city has its own story of electricity, transportation,
or water systems in crisis. Although the circumstances vary from one urban
area to the next, they all have one thing in common: The critical infrastructure
that is taken for granted by both their citizens and their government leaders
is technologically outdated, woefully inadequate, increasingly fragile, or
all of the above. In some cities, the quality of water, power, and transportation
infrastructure is noticeably declining. In others, it was never very good
to begin with. And few cities have enough of it to meet future needs." Lights!
Water! Motion!, strategy-business.com

There is an undeniable, an unarguable connection between the quality of a
countries economic competitiveness and its infrastructure. Yet study after
study shows the global economy currently running an infrastructure deficit
of anywhere from US$ 40 trillion to $70 trillion.

The World Economic Forum's Positive Infrastructure Report finds that the world
faces a global infrastructure deficit of $2 trillion per year over the next
20 years.

The American Society of Civil Engineer's (ASCE) New Report Card concludes
that to raise the grades, from the current D+, and get U.S. infrastructure
to an acceptable level, a total investment of $3.6 trillion is needed by 2020.
Currently, about $2 trillion in infrastructure spending is projected.

A major new Canadian study by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM),
showed that a significant amount of municipal infrastructure ranks between "fair" and "very
poor." The report provides an assessment of the condition of four primary asset
categories of municipal infrastructure: drinking-water systems, wastewater
and storm water networks, and municipal roads. The replacement/upgrade cost
of just these assets total $171.8 billion.

Conclusion

Add it all up, the global infrastructure deficit, today's and tomorrow's,
the incredible amount of urbanization and population growth still to take place,
the addition of a billion and more consumers, piece it altogether and you have
to see it equals an enormous demand that's going to be placed on the world's
finite supply of increasingly conflicted mineral resources.

The scale
of resource use is unprecedented in magnitude, the number of people we're
talking about is well over a billion - all to be new urbanized consumers
by 2025. The world's population is suppose to number 9-10 billion (another
2-3 billion in just a few decades) by 2050 increasing even further the demand
for the globes resources.

Bull markets climb a wall of worry. Today the dollar is up and commodities
are down but more money creation, on a massive scale, an unprecedented level,
a "you ain't seen nothing yet' kind of scale is both necessary and coming -
central bank monetary
policies have been an abysmal failure, time for governments to step in
with fiscal policy geared toward generating jobs from urbanization/infrastructure
programs.

Richard lives with his family on a 160 acre ranch in northern British Columbia.
He invests in the resource and biotechnology/pharmaceutical sectors and is
the owner of Aheadoftheherd.com. His articles have been published on over 400
websites, including: SafeHaven.com, WallStreetJournal, USAToday, NationalPost,
Lewrockwell, MontrealGazette, VancouverSun, CBSnews, HuffingtonPost, Beforeitsnews,
Londonthenews, Wealthwire, CalgaryHerald, Forbes, Dallasnews, SGTreport, Vantagewire,
Indiatimes, Ninemsn, Ibtimes, Businessweek, HongKongHerald, Moneytalks, SeekingAlpha,
BusinessInsider, Investing.com and the Association of Mining Analysts.

Legal Notice / Disclaimer: This document is not and should not be construed
as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe
for any investment. Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained
from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently
verified; Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and
accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness.
Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are subject to change
without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for
the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided
within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance
upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore,
I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage
or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the
use and existence of the information provided within this Report.

Ahead of the Herd.com Media Group Inc.a division of Ahead of the Herd Holdings
Inc. All rights reserved. No statement or expression of opinion, or any other
matter herein, directly or indirectly, is an offer or the solicitation of an
offer to buy or sell the securities or financial instruments mentioned. While
we believe the sources of information to be reliable, we in no way represent
or guarantee the accuracy of the statements made herein. Ahead of the Herd.com
does not provide individual investment counseling, act as an investment advisor,
or individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment.
The publisher, editors and consultants of Ahead of the Herd.com may actively
trade in the investments discussed in this website and newsletter. They may
have substantial positions in the securities recommended and may increase or
decrease such positions without notice. Neither the publisher nor the editors
are registered investment advisors. Subscribers should not view this publication
as offering personalized legal or investment counseling. Investments recommended
in this website and publication should be made only after consulting with your
investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements
of the company in question. Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or
its contents by Xerography, facsimile, or any other means is illegal and punishable
by law.